This invention is concerned with closures for containers carrying liquids for human consumption. Specifically the invention relates to a closure having a tamper-evident feature with a virtually hermetic seal which can easily be removed by hand. In one aspect of the invention the closure is adapted for wine bottles and has been designed to provide an aesthetic image in keeping with quality wines and retaining the "ceremony" involved with opening a bottle of wine without the need for an opening instrument as is currently employed.
Throughout the world and for several centuries, wines have been contained in glass bottles with corks. Even today, wines of medium to high quality are still packaged in the same way, although some lower quality wines have screw-threaded closures or employ alternative packaging. Corks are traditionally manufactured in Portugal and come in a variety of grades, the quality of which is determined only visually. There is a shortage of high quality corks, making it difficult for smaller vintners to secure a cork of consistent quality. A percentage of wine becomes "corked" after filling, that is, tainted by cork taste due to imperfect corks. Although no accurate industry figure is available, 4% of production is not an unusual number. A fair percentage of wines sold commercially reach the consumer in a "corked" condition. Cork maintains a substantially hermetic seal if it is kept moist by storing the bottle on its side. However, if the cork dries out it will lose its hermeticity due to its open cellular nature. Some people believe this open cellular structure provides additional air pockets or even permits air exchange with exterior air, and that this will enhance the aging of wine, especially red wine; however, another school of thought also exists which believes that wine should be produced at the quality level required under controlled manufacturing circumstances and packaged in an hermetically sealed environment thereafter to ensure a consistent quality level to the consumer. Inevitably some aging, i.e. changes to the wine, will occur in the bottle whether the seal is hermetic or not.
The quality of corks varies greatly and as cork ages it deteriorates and eventually crumbles, prompting certain high quality producers such as Chateau Lafite-Rothschild (Chateau & Estates) to periodically send its staffers to key wine markets to recork older bottles for their customers. The reported fact that corkiness taints an estimated $2 billion to $3 billion worth of wine each year is staggering.
Additionally, recent reports from various vintners in the United States would indicate that there is a high percentage of leakers, the exact reason for which no one seems fully to understand. This is prompting various vintners to store bottles in an upright position, drying the cork, and thus affecting the long term hermeticity of the closure and reducing the long term shelf life of the beverage.
The problems associated with corks are well documented and several vintners have already begun to use alternative stoppers such as the synthetic cork "Cellukork" and a metal screw-threaded closure called "Vin-Lok".
The traditional lead capsule has also become a thing of the past due to the FDA's concerns regarding lead contamination. In response to this problem, many new capsule materials have recently been developed to overcome the problem, none being as easy to remove as the original lead product.
Further, there is a widely held opinion in the wine industry today that the traditional wine package is not "user friendly", in that a cork requires a tool to remove it from the bottle, deemed by some to be an unnecessary nuisance and a deterrent for many potential customers, including the elderly and those less mechanically inclined.
It is also clear that the traditional cork offers no protection whatsoever to tampering and that the package can easily be contaminated by use of a syringe, causing a considerable exposure and liability for wine producers.
It is an object of this invention to replace the traditional wine cork with a sanitary, safe, easily-used, tamper-evident closure which provides an hermetic seal, is aesthetically pleasing and maintains some semblance of the traditional ceremony involved with the opening of a bottle of wine.